Does Cold Weather Make You Sick?

Sunday

Dec 30, 2012 at 12:01 AMDec 31, 2012 at 12:26 AM

The truth about the cold weather/sickness rumor.

Q: Can cold weather make me sick?
A: So far, researchers think that normal exposure to moderately cold temperatures doesn’t increase your susceptibility to infection. Most health experts agree that the reason winter is “cold and flu season” is not because of cold temperatures, but because people spend more time indoors, in closer contact with other people who can pass on their germs. But researchers continue to study this question. One study showed an increase in upper-respiratory infections in cross-country skiers who exercise vigorously in the cold, but whether these infections are due to the cold, the intense exercise or the dryness of the air is not known. A review of hundreds of medical studies on the subject, though, concluded that moderate cold exposure has no detrimental effect on the human immune system. —Internist Dr. Anthony Komaroff, Harvard Medical School professor and Editor-in-chief of the Harvard Health Publications Division
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